Gold stars for Mike Babcock ahead of Team Canada’s gold medal game

Carey Price has justified his status as Canada’s starting goaltender with four of the team’s five wins, including a shutout against the U.S. in the semifinals.Jean Levac
/ Ottawa Citizen/Postmedia News

SOCHI, Russia — Mike Babcock, who has the help of 33 million unpaid assistants, knew going in that every decision he made would be scrutinized and analyzed to within an inch of its life.

And he hasn’t been disappointed.

His selection of starting goalies created more debate than the Keystone Pipeline. The presence of first-time Olympian and relative unknown Jamie Benn was greeted with skepticism. Patrice Bergeron. Marty St. Louis. Each has been fodder in the ongoing and never-ending dialogue about the Olympic men’s team in this country and, rest assured, somewhere, someone is still calling a radio talk show to rage about P.K. Subban.

“It’s part of the process in Canada,” shrugs the Team Canada head coach. “Before the last Olympics I had a function to raise money with a bunch of plumbers (the real kind, not the third-liners) and they knew everything.

But it’s a funny thing. Now that Canada is in the gold-medal game, it appears Babcock and the Team Canada management staff might have known what they were doing. Or, maybe, they were awfully lucky.

Either way, virtually every big personnel decision Babcock has made in this tournament has been a significant success for the Maple Leaf; starting with Carey Price, who pitched a 1-0 shutout against the United States in Friday’s semifinal; Benn scored the game’s only goal against the U.S.; and even Olympic rookie Alex Pietrangelo, who’s fourth on the team in ice time.

Babcock, of course, will become an incompetent boob again if Canada drops the gold-medal final to Sweden on Sunday and he’s prepared for that. But, between Vancouver four years ago and now, Sochi, it appears he knows more about building a winning team than your average plumber.

“Sometimes I think we get a little confused,” Babcock mused Saturday as the Canadians held their last on-ice session before the game that will stop our country. “It’s not about who scores the goals or blocks the shots or who plays. It’s about winning. It’s about Canada. And it’s about hockey supremacy. We like to brag it’s our game. I think if it’s your game, you better show it’s your game.”

Or suffer the consequences at home.

“A lot of people want to talk about this and that and things that aren’t so strong about our team,” said Jonathan Toews. “We knew all along we were doing a lot of great things, and we are going to continue doing that. The next game will follow that work ethic. We can check, we can work our tails off and we can make things real tough for the other team.”

Which, when you think about, isn’t a bad recipe for success.

Throughout the tournament, the Canadians have been fighting the perception they’re incomplete, largely because they’ve had trouble scoring goals. But in his daily press briefings, Babcock has emphasized the Olympics is about building a team as quickly as possible with a clearly defined identity and style of play. While it hasn’t lit up the scoreboard, it’s produced five straight wins.

Canada, in fact, has allowed three goals in the tournament, which is unbelievable. Price, the 26-year-old ’keeper from Anahim Lake, B.C., has four of those wins, including the shutout over the U.S. in the semis, and has more than justified the faith Babcock has placed in him.

“I’m just soaking in this moment right now,” Price said. “This is the whole reason we play this sport.

“You’re willing to do anything for the guy standing beside you.”

You get a lot of that with Team Canada, a lot of the Semper Fi. Benn, the 24-year-old from Victoria, was something of a surprise selection to this August group but he’s since worked his way on to a line with Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry, The Legion of Doom North.

“It’s been pretty easy, actually,” said Benn. “It’s fun to get out here with this group of guys. They make it easy on you. You just focus on hockey.”

Babcock’s greatest success, in fact, has been getting this group of multimillionaires to sublimate their individual games for the greater good. The Canadians, as Toews said, win by grinding the opposition into a fine pulp and Babcock deserves a great deal of credit for the wholesale buy-in throughout the lineup.

But there’s another reason for that commitment and it lies with this country’s hockey tradition.

Pietrangelo talked about this Saturday, talked about the responsibility that comes with putting on that sweater, talked about the connection that runs from Crosby to Sakic to Gretzky and Messier, all the way back to Esposito and Clarke and what that means to a player.

“As soon as you make this team, that goes through your mind,” said the 24-year-old from Toronto. “Wow, you get to be part of this group of guys. To win the gold would make it that much better.”

Now, they’re also a part of a larger group that includes the “girls”. After the Canadian women won their gold medal Thursday, goalie Shannon Szabados and forwards Brianne Jenner and Hayley Wickenheiser sent the men’s team a letter.

“Tonight is yours,” it read. “Own the moment. We are proof that every minute matters. The podium is reserved for the brave. Earn every inch, dictate the pace. Go get em!

From the Girls! :)”

That letter hangs in the Team Canada locker-room; part of the tie that binds everyone in our country, part of our story, part of who we are, and everyone who takes the gig understands it.

“Pressure simply means you have a chance,” said Babcock. “If you didn’t have a chance, there’d be no pressure on you whatsoever. I’ll take the pressure all day long.”

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Gold stars for Mike Babcock ahead of Team Canada’s gold medal game

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